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Category Archives: Leadership
Continuous Improvement and Lean
Driving continuous improvement throughout our organizations is fundamental to short and long-term business success. Continuous improvement requires daily improvement in everything that we (and our teams) do…even when we are too busy! Are we better today than we were yesterday? … Continue reading
Remind…Don’t Teach
A fundamental task of a leader is to train and develop his or her team. This often involves coaching and teaching the team on the strategic, operational and leadership skills that are required for them to reach the next level. … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Communication, Leadership
Tagged Communication, Learning, Training
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The 5 Fundamentals of an Innovative Company
The world and the customer are changing rapidly. To keep up with these changes and to truly differentiate themselves in the marketplace, companies need to innovate. Yet, too many companies still rely on small updates, upgrades, or makeovers of their … Continue reading
Three ‘Cheats’ of the Ethical Leader
An ethical leader is someone dedicated to always doing the right thing for the employees, the business, and all stakeholders. Alas, this ideal for the selfless and driven leader clashes with the reality of who most of us really are. … Continue reading
The Power of Active Follow Up
To make change happen effectively (for our companies and for ourselves) requires daily attention and regular follow up. People don’t get better without follow up. So let’s get better at following up with our people. The quote above is from … Continue reading
The One Thing
In their book, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan suggest that a laser-like focus on the most important is essential to realizing success. Since the book dovetails so closely to … Continue reading
The ‘Crack Cocaine’ of Leadership
Crack Cocaine has three distinguishing features: It gives the user a short – lived, intense high It is highly addictive It inevitably leads to the user’s downfall These exact three characteristics are found when business leaders feed their egos. Let’s … Continue reading
Critical Thinking Skills
I just finished listening to a Great Courses series entitled Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills by Professor Steven Novella. This excellent course offers insight and reminders invaluable to all business leaders trying to think critically … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Personal Success, Team / People
Tagged Critical Thinking, Decision Making, Personal Success
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Make American Manufacturing Great Again
Manufacturing still remains a vital part of the American economy. Many factors make America a great place for manufacturing: a large and nearby market, common language, good culture of business ethics, low cost fuel, strong design and engineering talent, robust … Continue reading
Six Words for Leadership and Business Success
Success… A whole industry has sprung up around helping leaders and businesses get things done, make it happen, and be more successful. It is possible to spend thousands, even millions, of dollars getting advice from these consulting firms, gurus, and … Continue reading
The 9 Steps to Managing Our Stress
As business leaders, our lives are often stressful. Recent research confirms what many of us have observed; stress can harm our careers, endanger our health, and kill. In my career, I have witnessed: A boss retire early from his dream … Continue reading
Lead With Questions
As leaders, we often have an employee come to us with an issue or problem. As “make it happen” managers, we then focus on getting the problem solved and getting it done as quickly as possible. Thus, we take charge, … Continue reading
Get to the Front Lines
Undercover Boss has become a hit TV series by showing big corporate bosses going undercover and discovering the reality of the work lives of their employees. As leaders, we do not need to go undercover; we just need to get … Continue reading
Posted in Business Acumen, Leadership, Team / People
Tagged Accountability, Business Leadership, Business Transformation, Business Turnarounds, Change, Customer Satisfaction, Do the Right Thing, Employee Engagement, Face Reality, Human Resources, Integrity, Sales and Marketing, Sales Coaching, Winning Teamwork
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New Year Resolutions for First-Time Managers
Happy New Year! For first time managers struggling to move their business units forward in 2015, now is the time to take a step back and focus unwaveringly on the fundamentals of managing and leading others. As such, I offer … Continue reading
Foster Fresh Perspectives
As leaders, we can often get stuck in ruts, talking to the same people every day and thinking the same way as everyone else. To breakthrough and come up with new and innovative ideas and approaches to problems and issues, … Continue reading
We Need to Spend “Alone Time” With Our Skip Levels
As leaders, we need to spend time on a regular and consistent basis with our skip levels. What is a Skip Level? As we move up in our organizations, we become ‘managers of managers’ with both direct reports and … Continue reading
The Advice Not Taken
Lose Weight…Eat More Fruits and Vegetables…Exercise More. We all know what we have to do in order to improve our health. That is easy. The difficulty lies in taking this advice and actually following it. Likewise in business, there is … Continue reading
David M. Shedd - Move Your Company Forward 